The dwarves have all the best songs. Whether they are singing raucous ditties about smashing Bilbo’s best crockery or low, mournful…

At one time, every parent and child knew all about Nativity plays. Many will have memories and photographs of tea-towel-adorned shepherds,…

M (Judi Dench) is nothing if not pragmatic. Before the opening credits of Skyfall have even rolled, she has allowed not one, but two of her…

How can we be transformed through suffering? Surprisingly, the eighties cult film The Karate Kid offers some insights. If you're unfamiliar…

Margaret Atwood is one of the most important and influential writers alive today. Her fiction explores and reflects the current cultural…

The colour red suffuses We Need to Talk About Kevin. Red paint is smeared across walls and car window screens, red jam oozes out of…

The world's only consulting detective steps into the 21st Century in the BBC series Sherlock. Benedict Cumberbatch portrays the titular…

I'm not sure exactly what makes someone a phenomenon, but anyone who has managed to win 62 music awards in two years and has produced a…

There are many people who will have switched off during the first five minutes of Skins, E4’s notorious wild-child. The show is…